Before Taika Waititi heads into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Thor: Ragnarok,” he still has one small-scale adventure-comedy that has all the lovable qualities of his very best work. “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” based on a tale by the prolific New Zealand novelist Barry Crump, swept Sundance audiences up in all its crowd-pleasing glory this weekend at its world premiere, earning Waititi favorable reviews to follow up the acclaim he earned last year with “What We Do in the Shadows.”

Starring newcomer Julian Dennison as a “very bad egg” named Ricky, the movie follows the defiant young child’s adventure with his grumpy foster uncle (played by Sam Neill) in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues to find them, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work together in order to survive.

Mixing serious emotions with silly hijinks, it shouldn’t take long for a distributor to step up and claim distribution rights to the Sundance favorite. Watch the debut trailer above.